And here is chapter twelve!
You guys have been so supportive and awesome. I'm really loving your reviews. Thank you so much. I just wanted to let you know that you are definitely being appreciated.
Enjoy! This chapter is short, but it's very important, and one of my favorites.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
I froze, right in the middle of yanking up some corn.
Trying hard not to panic, I reached out with my mind.
Ian. Ian, it's happening again.
I know, I know, but what can we do?
He sounded just as panicked and weary as I did. We were both skittish and afraid, feeling constantly like someone was watching us, but we could never find a single person. We heard small footfalls or rustlings constantly, and it was really starting to fray our nerves.
On top of that, we found that the other people in the caves were looking extremely worried. They were constantly huddled in little groups, talking in hushed whispers and looking anxious. Every time I would come near, they would instantly stop and stare at me, only resuming their conversation after I was gone.
I was finally done in the fields, and after stretching, I headed to the bathing room.
Someone—Wanda, probably—had been able to get real soap on one of the raids, instead of the prickly cactus soap that Ian and I remembered. It felt soft and soothing on my skin. When I was finished, I changed clothes and headed back to my room…
…unaware that I would soon get the biggest shock of my life.
"We don't need him!" Kyle's voice.
I jolted awake, sitting bolt upright on the mattress. I blinked the sleepiness from my eyes as Ian tried to get me to be more alert.
Squinting up at the little crack in the ceiling, I could see that it was darkest night. I must have fallen asleep after I'd gotten back from my bath. Now, though, I heard voices arguing outside.
"Yes, we do." Wanda's voice, desperate, instantly had me more alert than Ian could make me. He, too, was attentive, trying to hear what was going on.
What are they saying? What are they talking about?
I don't know, Ben, I've only heard as much as you have.
"Listen." Wanda's voice was quieter now and had a ring of authority in it that we were both unaccustomed to. "Ben saved my life. Behind this door is a soul who is good and kind, and he can help us. And Ian. Always remember Ian."
Yes, Ian. Everyone was now aware of his presence after I had permitted Wanda to tell our secret. Now people looked at me with hope and light in their eyes, knowing that they would soon get Ian back. A few looked at me with some pity, and I knew that I was already beginning to make some friends here, friends who didn't want me to leave just yet as much as they wanted to get Ian back. Friends like Geoffrey, Heath, and Lily. Trudy was nice to me, too, and Jared had thawed out some since I had saved Wanda's life.
"Wanda, we still don't know if we can trust him."
"Well, I'm going to find out right now."
There were quiet footsteps that came nearer and nearer, and then they halted.
Jamie gasped. "Wanda, no! If he gets out of here and tells the Seekers that—,"
"He won't, though," she interrupted. "You remember when I was a soul in Mel's body. Do you remember what the idea of turning you and Jared and the others in to the Seeker did to me?"
"Yes." It was barely more than a whisper, and then his voice got louder. "But this is out of bounds, Wanda, I mean—,"
"I'm inclined to go with Jamie on this one." It was Melanie's voice. "I think that there are other ways to prove his trustworthiness. We don't need to go this far."
"Listen." Jeb interrupted all of them, and they instantly fell silent. "You know what this means to Wanda. You know how hard this decision must be for her. So stop making it harder and let her decide, all right?"
There was silence.
"I have to," Wanda whispered. "Even if not for Ben, Ian is still in there, the Ian that we all know and love, and he's got a right to know. It's been nearly three years now. I bet you didn't know that Ben had been here this long, did you?"
The stunned silence behind the door only enforced the truth in that statement. I was stunned, too. I had no idea that it had been so long. Sure, the days in the caves had settled into weeks, which in turn had become months. But had I really been here that long? It felt like no time at all. I had quickly settled into the rhythm of life here, and I was just as shocked as the others seemed to be.
"All right." It was just a tiny whisper, but it came from Melanie, and that seemed to give Wanda courage.
I waited, silent and tense with anticipation.
There was a soft, gentle knock on the door. "Ben?" Wanda called in a beautiful, melodic voice. "Are you awake in there, Ben?"
"Yes," I called back quietly. "Come in."
She pulled the doors apart and stepped into the room. The others filed in behind her—Jeb, Jamie, Melanie, Jared, and Kyle. They formed a line behind her that was somehow almost a challenge, like they were daring me to get any closer to the girl they all loved.
"Hello, Wanda," I murmured. "Hi, Kyle. Jeb, Jamie, Jared, Mel."
They all nodded once, except Melanie, whose expression just grew stony. Kyle had at least nodded to me.
Wanda took a deep breath. "Ben, there is someone very important in these caves that we need you to meet."
There was the tiniest of sounds from somewhere between Melanie and Wanda.
It was then that I noticed the little shadow clinging to Wanda's knees. She leaned down and murmured soothing words to it.
I was puzzled. Who is that?
Ian was equally baffled. I…I don't know. Freedom? Isaiah? It was clearly a child.
Wanda looked up at me, and there it was—the steely fire in her eyes that I still didn't understand.
"You can do it," she murmured to the little shadow, not taking her eyes off of me. "C'mon."
The little shadow took a deep breath.
Then she carefully stepped into view.
She was small, that much I could see, but she was tough. Because I could see that the shadow was a she now. It was a little girl.
I was wondering where the heck a little girl had come from when the child shook her hair out of her face and looked me straight in the eye.
I gasped and my knees buckled. I had to sit down for a moment.
The girl self-consciously ran her fingers through her hair. Her thick, waist-length, inky black hair that matched mine exactly.
She stared at me with wide eyes that burned blue, brighter than a star, brighter than a fire. They were cobalt blue, ice blue, sapphire blue, and they sparkled like diamonds.
And they matched mine exactly. They matched Ian's exactly.
No! Ian gasped, and then shrieked, NO!
In that instant, the wall that had been so carefully put and held up crumbled to bits. I saw in that instant everything.
I saw that he had altered the first memory I had seen when I was put into his body. He had altered his memories, changed them, so that I would not detect this one secret, this one precious child in front of me with her perfect, tiny teeth and round face and angelic features. He had so carefully hidden her from me, but now his secret came streaming into view with the pain, longing, and joy combined of seeing her there, before us.
The secret was that when he was taken, Wanda had been heavily pregnant.
She had been pregnant with this child, this girl in front of me.
I let out another gasp as the memories, the true memories, flooded my mind as Ian tried in vain to stop them. I remembered when Doc had told them. Ian and Wanda had a child, and it was this child standing in front of me with Ian's eyes and hair.
Memory after memory filled me, and they all made sense now.
Wanda gasped. "Wait. Trudy, where's…"
Trudy let out a gasp of horror.
Wanda fainted.
She was looking for her daughter.
The rustlings. The faint footfalls. There was someone watching us, spying on us. A child. Someone small.
Wanda's child. Ian's child. Watching her father that she'd never met.
"Does he know about…"
"No, Jamie. Ian hid those memories from him."
"Ben can't know, Wanda."
"I know. It will be all right."
They were talking about her. This little girl in front of me.
"Ben, Ian," Wanda said, her voice quavering, "I would like you to meet Celeste." She took a deep breath. "My daughter." And she looked at my eyes, and looked straight past my eyes to Ian, because I knew she was talking to him. "Our daughter."
